Pages

Social Share

Search This Blog

The Story of How We Got Our Dogs

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #PedigreeGives #CollectiveBias

Jaxen and Ava are my two mini dachshunds that I absolutely love. They pretty much get treated like people and are so spoiled (mostly with love and attention). Ava is 6 and Jaxen is 5. I have written about them before but I don't think that I have ever written about how we got them until now.

Troy and I were first married and living in an apartment in Kalamazoo, MI. At that apartment, we couldn't have any pets. Troy and I were working opposite schedules and I didn't have any family nearby or many friends so I was lonely a lot. We decided to get a small dog and to try to hide it. We were trying to decide between a Chihuahua and a dachshund and obviously went with a dachshund.

Baby Ava!

We went to a house about 45 minutes away to pick up our puppy. It was a litter of three. I found them online and we were going to get the red one. I grew up with Irish Setters and loved red dogs. Well, we got there and little miss Ava Jones warmed our hearts so much that we ended up getting her instead of her sister. She was so loving and sweet, the thought of leaving her there was just horrible! She has been ours ever since.Ava changed our lives so much. She was the new boss of the house according to her. I had never had a dachshund so I didn't really understand what they were like. They are pretty much the strongest willed dogs that I have ever met. If Ava wants a treat, she will stand at the cupboard barking until she gets one. If you are not petting her and she wants to be petted, she will hit your hand with her snoot. Before we got a dog, we made a rule of no dogs in the bed. Well, that first night, Ava literally cried the entire night and ever since then, those darn dogs have been sleeping in our bed- what a manipulator!We hid Ava living with us for about two months and finally got caught! We had to move out of the apartment if we wanted to keep her, so that's what we did. It actually worked out perfectly because I found my job at a nursing home and wanted to move closer to that.

Ava getting let into the house by Jaxen's 3 siblings- it was like they were deciding if it was okay for her to take their brother.

A year after we got Ava, we felt that she needed a playmate. We wanted to get another dachshund and ended up getting our little man Jaxen. Jaxen's personality is so much different than Ava. He requires a lot of love, always wants to be around, rarely barks to get what he wants (unless it is on a walk where he barks his head off) and is very, very sensitive. It is crazy how two dogs of the same breed can be so different. The two of them are best friends. Jaxen respects Ava and she is clearly the boss. I am so glad that we got another dachshund because those two need each other and are buddy buddy. As I wrote about before, Jaxen loves to walk and inspires me to stay active. For an ~11 pound dog, he is very active and I feel guilty if I don't take him on a walk daily so, most days we walk.

Because we love our dogs so much, we want to make sure to give them nutritious food that keeps them healthy. I purchased PEDIGREE® adult dry dog food at Sam's Club which is where we always get our dog food so we can buy it in bulk.

For a change to have your pet featured on SamsClub.com, upload a photo to Instagram or Twitter using the hashtag #LaterShelter. A bowl of food will be donated for every photo you upload.